Prez inaccurately claims malaria
A miracle cure for the codown ronavirus is here. Or maybe not.
President Trump claimed Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration has approved a “game changer” medicine for treating coronavirus — but the regulatory agency said not so fast.
Speaking at a White House briefing, Trump said the FDA has been “so great” and fasttracked coronavirus trials for Chloroquine, a cheap immunosuppressive drug typically used to treat malaria and, in some cases, arthritis.
“They’ve gone through the approval process — it’s been approved,” Trump said. “They did it. They took it from many, many months to immediate.”
The president said the drug had shown “very, very encouraging results” and claimed doctors could begin prescribing it to coronavirus patients “almost immediately.”
But minutes later, Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the FDA, appeared to contradict the president, saying Chloroquine was undergoing clinical testing in order to gauge its effectiveness.
“We want to do that in a setting of a clinical trial,” Hahn said, standing next to Trump. “I have great hope for how we are going to come out of this situation. What’s also important is not to provide false hope.”
A White House spokesreturn woman did not a request for clarification.
In a follow-up statement, the FDA confirmed it had yet to approve any coronavirus usage for the malaria drug, saying “studies are underway to determine the efficacy in using Chloroquine to treat COVID-19.”
The mixed messages come as the virus continues to spread across the country at a rapid pace.
More than 10,000 cases have now been confirmed in the U.S. and at least 150 people have died. In New York City alone, there were at least 3,615 confirmed cases as of Thursday afternoon.
The American economy has ground to a halt as hundreds of thousands of work